militant moderation

This morning was the launch of Impact '08, a campaign by the Center for U.S. Global Engagement to get the presidential candidates to recognize the importance of non-military foreign involvement. There was stuff going on yesterday too, but I especially wanted to go to the breakfast event this morning because Madeleine Albright was one of the featured speakers (along with Frank Carlucci, Barry McCaffrey, and Tom Ridge). I was a little worried when Albright walked onstage; she looked tiny and old. But when she spoke she was fantastic--clear, precise, with a message that called on us to become "militant moderates," and to defeat the real axis of evil: poverty, ignorance, and disease. She did have a bit of an edge because she was reading from a speech, or at least referring to notes. I also got positive impressions of Carlucci and McCaffrey, although Carlucci (who was not referring to notes) lost his train of thought at one point and stared blankly at the audience for several seconds with his mouth hanging open. Tom Ridge, I dunno, I don't like the guy.

In general it was great to hear these leaders from both parties speak from their own experiences about why it's important to engage with the rest of the world in a positive way. Hopefully the next president will feel the same.

Here's part 1 of Albright's speech; it seems that part 2 hasn't been posted yet. I'll add it later. She has some interesting comments about new Arab democracies electing leaders that we don't necessarily like:

"Just because the denial of freedom is bad, doesn't mean that the exercise of freedom will always be to our liking. Democracy is a form of government, not a ticket to some heavenly kingdom where extremism is vanquished and everyone agrees with us..."